// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did PBC Academic say to itself? It had a degree of self-reflection.

Academic Metropol-Region
Academic Metropol-Region
Nickname	Metropol (Метропол)
Leagues	BBL
Founded	1947; 79 years ago
History	PBC Academic; (1947–2020)
Arena	Universiada Hall
Capacity	4000
Location	Sofia, Bulgaria
Team colors	Yellow and Blue ;
President	Viktor Vladov
Team manager	Viktor Vladov, Georgi Petrov
Head coach	Eduard Valchev
Championships	26 Bulgarian Leagues; 11 Bulgarian Cups; 1 Bulgarian Super Cups; 1 International Students' Cup
Website
Home	Away

BC Academic Metropol Region (Bulgarian: БК "Академик" Метропол-Рийджън) is a reestablished Bulgarian professional basketball club based in the capital Sofia.

In April 2022, Academic has been reborn and rebranded by the new owners, the German-Bulgarian ex-professional basketball players Viktor Vladov and Georgi Petrov.

Founded in 1947 as part of the Academic Sofia sports club, they have won the championship of Bulgaria 26 times, won the Bulgarian Cup 11 times and won the Bulgarian Super Cup 1 time. Among their international honours are two FIBA European Champions Cup finals (both lost to Rīgas ASK) in 1958 and 1959 and an International Students' Cup in 1957.

In 2000, the team were renamed Lukoil Academic as a sponsorship deal was signed with Russian oil giant Lukoil, and quickly established themselves as dominant in the Bulgarian Championship. Since then they have been a regular ULEB Cup participant, and won the FIBA Europe Regional Challenge Cup Conference South in 2003.

In September 2020, Academic withdrew from the NBL and announced that it will no longer maintain a professional team.^[1]

They played their home games at the Universiade Hall.

After the rebranding and reestablishing to "BC Academic Metropol Region" in April 2022, the club will compete in the Bulgarian A-Grupa in season 2022/23.^[2]

The club colours have been changed to dark blue and yellow, as of being more applieable to the traditional colours of Academic.

Manager Board and Sponsors

The main owner of the club is the former professional basketball player Viktor Vladov (profession: banker).

Followed up by the manager board members Georgi Petrov, Emmanuel Tady and Mario Yurukov.

Additional founding members are: Plamen Martinov, Nikolay Petkov and Stanislav Michev.

The sponsors are also visible on the jersey and up to date are only minority sponsors with small amounts:

"Porto Greco" Restaurant (Plovdiv, BUL), "Bryagovo Milk", "FruitCorrect", "bling Entertainment", "bikecity", "HCPKS" and "Idea Dent".

The team has also a non-profit with 2K to be implemented in NBA 2K22 and NBA 2K23 PlayStation 5 exclusive Add-Ons, which add various clubs from Europe to the videogame.

History

Basketball club Academic Sofia was founded in 1947 as a part of the students' sports association, Academic. Under the guidance of Bozhidar Takev, Veselin Temkov, Neycho Neychev, Tzvetan Zheliazkov, Petko Marinov and others, BC Academic has been republic champion 20 times and won the Bulgarian Cup on 9 occasions. They have additional achieved international success. Under coach Bozhidar Takev, they were twice finalists in the European Championships against Rīgas ASK in 1958 and 1959. In 1957, they became world champions in Paris.

The tradition of the club was revived again in 2000 when Lukoil Bulgaria became the main sponsor of the team. The selection of Lukoil Academic was originated towards young players, who with senior coach Petko Marinov and his assistants built the youngest team in the republican's basketball league. The renewed school was also known for the work by adolescents of the club, for which some players^[who?] had already shown considerable success at the during home championships. The players of Petko Marinov won the cup of their country and played the most attractive final in the play-offs in the championship, for the last ten years. The modo of the club consists of the republican champion's titles and, the one of the best performances in the European club tournaments.

In 2018, Lukoil announced its sponsor deal with Levski Sofia, while leaving Academic with a smaller budget.^[3] Consequently, Academic sent its top players to Levski.

In 2022, Viktor Vladov and Georgi Petrov helped Academic to reborn its basketball team. The record champion of Bulgaria will restart from the season 2022/23 in the Bulgarian A Grupa.^[4]

Honours

Domestic competitions

Bulgarian League

Winners (26): 1957, 1958, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017

Bulgarian Cup

Winners (11): 1952, 1954, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013

Bulgarian Basketball Super Cup

Winners (1): 2016

Runners-up (1): 2017

European competitions

EuroLeague

Runners-up (2): 1958, 1958–59

FIBA Europe Conference South

Winners(1): 2003

Worldwide competitions

International Students' Cup

Winners (1): 1957

Season by season

Season	Tier	League	Pos.	W–L	Bulgarian Cup	European competitions
2013–14	1	NBL	2nd			2 Eurocup	RS	4–6
2014–15	1	NBL	1st	31–4	Runner-up	3 EuroChallenge	RS	2–4
2015–16	1	NBL	1st	33–2	Runner-up	3 FIBA Europe Cup	R2	5–7
2016–17	1	NBL	1st	28–7	Runner-up	3 Champions League	QR2	1–1
2016–17	1	NBL	1st	28–7	Runner-up	4 FIBA Europe Cup	R2	7–5
2017–18	1	NBL	6th	10-14	1/4 Final	3 Champions League	QR3	2–2
2017–18	1	NBL	6th	10-14	1/4 Final	4 FIBA Europe Cup	RS	2–4
2018-19	1	NBL	8th	4-20	Semifinalist
2019-20	1	NBL	5th	9-11	1/4 Final
2020-21
2021-22					NALB Cup 21/22
2022-23	2	BBL A Grupa^[5]

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

BC Academic Metropol Region roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	No.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Age
SG	22	Gyoshev, Ivan	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)	80 kg (176 lb)	34–35 – Missing required parameter 1=month! 1991
PF/C	77	Alexandrović-Vladov, Viktor (C)	2.04 m (6 ft 8 in)	111 kg (245 lb)	34 – (1991-08-18)18 August 1991
PF	13	Krieg, Gregoire	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)	95 kg (209 lb)
SF	7	Kushev, Peter	1.97 m (6 ft 6 in)	91 kg (201 lb)	22 – (2003-09-11)11 September 2003
F	1	Lezginov, Maksim	1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)	105 kg (231 lb)	28 – (1997-12-04)4 December 1997
PG	3	Michev, Stanislav	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)	70 kg (154 lb)
F	35	Mihaylov, Vasil	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	90 kg (198 lb)	32 – (1994-05-25)25 May 1994
PF/C	11	Nedyalkov, Nikolay	1.99 m (6 ft 6 in)	95 kg (209 lb)
SF	88	Yurukov, Mario	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)	83 kg (183 lb)	32 – (1993-12-05)5 December 1993
SF	8	Tošić, Nikola	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)	95 kg (209 lb)
G/F	0	Stoyanov, Ivaylo	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)	95 kg (209 lb)	26 – (1999-09-16)16 September 1999
SG	4	Petrov, Georgi	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)	82 kg (181 lb)	35–36 – Missing required parameter 1=month! 1990
PG	73	Petkov, Nikolay	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)	90 kg (198 lb)	25 – (2001-02-23)23 February 2001
SG	10	Nikolov, Dayan	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)	85 kg (187 lb)	32 – (1993-11-18)18 November 1993
F/C	15	Vasilev, Nikolay	1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)	110 kg (243 lb)
PG	12	Vekov, Kiril	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)	70 kg (154 lb)
G/F	23	Martinov, Plamen	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)	75 kg (165 lb)
SG	30	Kaynarov, Stoyan	1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)	80 kg (176 lb)	25 – (2001-05-30)30 May 2001

Head coach

Eduard Valchev

Assistant coach(es)

Viktor Vladov

Legend

(C) Team captain
Injured

Roster

Updated: 5 May 2022

Notable players